6.  The applicants, three siblings (two women and one man), were born in 1963, 1966 and 1971, respectively, and originate from Baghdad.
7.  The applicants arrived in Sweden on 17 September 2008 and applied for asylum two days later. In support of their applications, they submitted in essence the following. They are Christians and had been living together in Baghdad. They had been harassed and called names on a regular basis. The two female applicants had been forced to wear a veil to avoid getting into trouble. In 2006 armed men had stopped the car in which the two female applicants were riding with their mother. When the men had seen a hanging cross in the car, they had forced the passengers out and had taken the car. On 17 August 2008, armed men had come to the applicants’ house and had told another brother that the applicants should convert to Islam before 1 September 2008, the beginning of the Ramadan; otherwise they would be killed. The men had also written a message with the same content on the wall of their house. The applicants had left Iraq on 20 August 2008.
8.  On 30 December 2008 the Migration Board (Migrationsverket) rejected the applications. The Board accepted that there was a threat against the applicants which was based on their religious beliefs and the difficult situation in Baghdad at the time. However, it considered that the threat was limited to Baghdad, as the applicants had not held any prominent professional or religious positions and there was therefore nothing to suggest that they would be of any particular interest outside of Baghdad. The applicants could relocate to central or northern Iraq. This conclusion applied regardless of whether the applicants had a social network in the mentioned regions. As the applicants had shared a household in Iraq, the female applicants would not lack a male relative upon return.
9.  The applicants appealed, maintaining that they would not be protected by Iraqi authorities upon return. They stated that they were not just referring to the general situation for Christians, but that they had pointed out several incidents to which they had already been subjected because of their Christian beliefs. Furthermore, the risks facing them were not geographically limited to Baghdad; as Christians, they would risk persecution in the whole country. Consequently, there was no internal flight alternative available to them.
10.  In reply, the Migration Board stated that the applicants would be able to relocate to the Kurdistan Region and noted that there were direct flights from Sweden to Erbil.
11.  On 16 September 2009 the Migration Court (Migrationsdomstolen) upheld the decision of the Board. The court considered that the incidents against the applicants were criminal acts related to the general security situation in Baghdad at the time. It pointed out that two years had passed since the incidents and that the security situation in Baghdad had improved during this period. Thus, the circumstances did not show that there was a concrete and individual threat against the applicants upon return.
12.  On 9 November 2009 the Migration Court of Appeal (Migrations-överdomstolen) refused the applicants leave to appeal.